ABSTRACT
Athens’s rise to domination of the Greek world — militarily, culturally and commercially — occurred almost fortuitously. The pressure of Persia on the Ionian cities resulted in the contraction of Greek influence across the Aegean where Athens with its strategically sound position rapidly became the centre of the relocated Ionian power. The civic expansion and democratic institutions of Athens proved attractive to scholars and intellectuals. In early fifth-century Athens the first Greek stone theatre was built on the southern slope of the Acropolis with accommodation for about 17,000 spectators. Rhetoric was probably brought to Athens by Gorgias from his native Sicily. Its origins there are credited to two teachers, Tisias and Corax, who undertook to teach courtroom speaking to those who needed it and lacked previous training. Despite the reputations of Gorgias and Protagoras the greatest sophist of the later fifth century was Socrates, who exercised a considerable influence on the development of education in Athens.
